100 Best Fall Recipes You Need To Try

You can just feel it, can't you? The summer flew by quicker than any summer you've had before. One day, you were pottering along on a balmy mid-August afternoon, and the next, somehow, it was colder and darker. The green is gone from the leaves. For better or for worse, fall is here.

Let's not kid ourselves — it's always a shame to say goodbye to those sunnier days. But that doesn't mean you need to let the changing seasons bring you down. After all, fall is a time of roaring fires and golden trees. It's a time of rainy days and warm scarves. It's a time of change. Most of all, though, it's a time for really good cooking.

The best fall recipes are hearty, warming, plentiful, and — most of the time — a little sweet, too. These are the kinds of dishes that make the coming winter seem a little less scary and the vanishing summer a little less tragic.

Additional reporting by Chris Heasman.

Any American will tell you that the most important event during the fall is Thanksgiving. Of course, Thanksgiving is thought of as the turkey holiday and has been for almost as long as Thanksgiving has been a thing. But we're here to put an end to that once and for all; chicken is demonstrably and indisputably superior to turkey in practically every way. According to GQ, "chicken tastes better than turkey. It just does. And the bird's smaller size means more even cooking, and you can fit more than one of them in a standard oven, and when was the last time you tasted a crispy bit of chicken skin? Chicken skin is delicious. You should have some for Thanksgiving."

Can't argue with that, can you? And even if you don't fancy a chicken on Thanksgiving, there's nothing stopping you from rustling up a fall chicken recipe once the weather closes in.

Luckily for you, our rotisserie chicken Costco copycat recipe near-perfectly replicates one of the best grocery store chickens out there. It uses a salt/garlic/paprika/pepper spice mixture to get just the right flavor balance, features a few top tips to perfect the roasting process, and, most importantly of all, is incredibly easy to perfect. Have it for Thanksgiving, have it for Sunday dinner. Have it for breakfast, for all we care. But whenever you do have it, one thing's for sure: You'll be glad you did.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Copycat Costco Rotisserie Chicken

For all the lovely boons of fall, one thing nobody enjoys is getting ill. But as the year draws on, it may seem inevitable that you'll fall prey to a cold or the flu. What does that mean? Well, it means a few days wrapped up in bed, taking fever reducers, and eating your rapidly diminishing body weight in chicken soup.

Yes, a good bowl of chicken soup can put a smile on the face of even the most afflicted of bedridden convalescents, so it's always good to go into the season with a decent recipe to hand. Enter our copycat chicken noodle soup fall recipe, a replication of the (frankly superb) version served at Panera bakeries around the country.

It's devilishly simple to make, and although you'll need a good deal of ingredients to get it just right, there's plenty of room for customization if you can't get out to the store. At its heart, all you really need for this is some egg noodles, a heap of veggies, some decent seasoning, and of course, a few chicken breasts. It's also dairy and gluten-free and could easily be totally vegan if you get your hands on some egg-free pasta and some decent vegan chicken pieces. Throw it all in a pot or an instant cooker, give it a little kitchen magic, and you'll be feeling better in no time.

Recipe: Copycat Panera Chicken Noodle Soup

Butternut squash is a quintessential fall vegetables — only beaten out by pumpkin or maybe sweet potatoes. Even if you're not feeling particularly seasonal, by the time you've tasted just a little bit of squash, you'll be pretty much bursting with autumnal glee.

Sometimes, though, it can be tough figuring out how best to use a butternut squash. If you're fully over the idea of throwing it in a stew or soup, however, you could always mix it up with our butternut squash stuffed shells fall recipe. The concept is almost irresistible: It's creamy, mashed squash, spiced sausage, cheese, and fresh spinach brought together and stuffed into pasta shells. Everything is done properly (no pre-cut squash or second-rate sausage here), so it's guaranteed to have that fresh feel. And the combination of melted ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan is decadent to the extreme. But sometimes, that's exactly what you want, isn't it?

Better yet, the whole thing comes slathered in a butter and sage sauce to give that perfect finishing touch to an already delectable dish. This one works equally well as a lunch or a dinner, so you can crank it out whenever you feel like it. Which will probably be often.

Recipe: Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells

Alright, calm down, it's not that weird. Let's consider two facts. Firstly, everybody always has leftovers after Thanksgiving. Secondly, everybody loves pizza. Both are true, right? So why wouldn't you use your leftovers as toppings for some kind of pan-Atlantic Pilgrim-Italian mash-up?

If you're the kind of person who likes to play it safe with Margherita pizza, look away now — Mashed's Thanksgiving pizza recipe is about as off-the-wall as they come. The dough is kneaded and baked as with any other pizza, but you won't find any tomato sauce or mozzarella cheese here. Instead, this pizza utilizes a mixture of mashed potatoes, goat cheese, and cheddar cheese on the base before being topped with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and more goat cheese. The result? A bold and hearty pizza that really shouldn't work — but somehow totally does.

Forget your turkey sandwiches or leftover casseroles, your pot pies and your hastily assembled salads. This year, put your scraps to good use and try out this utterly bizarre yet deeply satisfying adventure into the depths of Thanksgiving indulgence. If nothing else, do it just to see the look on your family's faces.

Recipe: Thanksgiving Pizza

Does it get any more autumnal than this? Fall without any pumpkins just wouldn't be fall at all.

And so the pumpkin pie must be held up as the undisputed (okay, disputed) king of holiday pies. That's why it has been enjoyed in American households for Thanksgivings dating all the way back to the 18th century. Unfortunately, as a dessert, pumpkin pie can often be overlooked in a hectic Thanksgiving kitchen, especially if you're focused on other things. Simplicity is key, then, and nothing is simpler to make than our five-ingredient pumpkin pie.

Those five ingredients for this fall recipe are pumpkin puree, condensed milk, eggs, spice, and a pie shell (though obviously, you can make the spice and the shell from scratch if you so choose). The process is almost as straightforward as the ingredients list, too: Whisk together a filling, pour it into the shell, bake, cool, and serve. This recipe should serve around eight people, and you'll likely be able to have it ready in under an hour (though it'll need longer to cool) — meaning you can rustle it up on the side as you tend to other, more complex dishes. Great taste, easy to make — basically, everything you could want in a good pumpkin pie.

Recipe: 5-ingredient Pumpkin Pie

What could be simpler than a five-ingredient recipe for pumpkin pie? Why, a three-ingredient recipe for apple cake, of course. Yes, if the pumpkin is the vegetable of fall, then surely the apple is the season's fruit. And although a nice apple pie will hit the spot, there's nothing wrong with shaking things up a little.

To bake yourself a delicious, fluffy, and filling apple cake, all you'll need is a few eggs, some decent cake mix, and a can of apple pie filling and topping. Just mix it all together, throw it in the oven, and wait.

Obviously, some people have a little more time on their hands, and you might be tempted to go for the genuine article: proper filling, homemade cake mix, that kind of thing. If that sounds like you, you're in luck, because our recipe will also guide you through making an apple cake from scratch (of course, although it's also very easy to make, you'll need a fair few more ingredients to pull it off).

Nothing else to it, really. Serve it with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Recipe: 3-ingredient Apple Cake

Another member of the Pantheon of Apple Desserts is here. Apple cobbler is easily as strong a fall treat as apple cake or pumpkin pie and has the added bonus of being both super simple and relatively quick to bake.

Our three-ingredient apple cobbler recipe uses — you guessed it — three ingredients: apples, cinnamon sugar, and cinnamon rolls (with the optional extra of chopped pecans). The process is just as simple and (outside of prep) should be basically effortless. This is a great recipe for novice bakers who aren't necessarily comfortable concocting homemade pastry dough but want something that at least looks impressive.

The finished dish ought to taste just as good as a fully homemade peach cobbler, with the cinnamon sugar adding just enough extra spice and sweetness to really bring the whole thing together. The use of cinnamon rolls for the topping is pretty inspired too and will likely provide a quick-fix (read: lazier) option for cobbler fans after something a bit different to the usual fare.

As for accompaniments, the same goes for the apple cobbler as the apple cake. A little whipped cream or ice cream will really make this fall recipe pop. Perfect for a cozy, after-dinner treat.

Recipe: 3-ingredient Apple Cobbler

Yes, that's right, ghost brownies. It doesn't get much spookier than this fall recipe. These spine-chilling little treats ought to be a fantastic addition to any spread on Halloween (or any other time of year, if you're into the macabre).

This recipe is fun, cute, and easy to pull off. We're doing everything from scratch, so you can be sure the quality will be top-notch. And  between the brownies themselves, the buttercream frosting, the white chocolate chips, and the jumbo marshmallows, it's going to give you (or your kids) one heck of a buzz.

The only really fiddly bit comes with the construction of the ghosts themselves, but even that's not too much trouble. You're basically painting a little face on them with black gel frosting and then covering them with buttercream. Aside from that, this is a standard (and delicious) brownie recipe, meaning it's simple, effective, and versatile too, being totally open to any kind of customization you might ordinarily bring to baking brownies. And hey, when Christmas comes around, you can turn the marshmallows into snowmen and a whole new batch. Any excuse, eh?

Recipe: Ghost Brownies

This recipe could feed pretty much an entire city. Despite requiring only a handful of ingredients and taking no longer than 40 minutes to prepare and bake, your finished dessert will serve a whopping 32 people. That's almost three football teams. Or an entire small wedding. Or yourself, 32 times, if that's the kind of mood you're in. Hey, we won't judge.

If you do happen to be catering to dozens of people, you might be glad to hear that pumpkin cream cheese sheet cake is easy to make, with no nasty surprises in store or fiddly segments along the way. The final product should be light and fluffy, with a lovely sweet and savory mix thanks to the cream cheese, pumpkin, and cinnamon all playing off against each other. It's not your average fall dessert, that's for sure, but it's good, regardless — which is lucky, considering you're going to end up with enough to keep you going for weeks.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Sheet Cake

If you've perfected your apple cobbler and your apple cake and somehow still have a whole heap of apples left over, this slow cooker baked apples recipe should make good use of the rest.

Because this recipe uses a slow cooker, the prep is incredibly quick and easy. But the cooking time itself is very long — three hours, to be exact — making this a good dish to leave on throughout the day. It also means that you have to do basically nothing after the prep is finished, which is always a plus. You're going to be flavoring your apples with cinnamon, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and apple pie spice, which will all come together as part of an oat mixture inside each apple.

Once they're done, the recipe recommends a dollop of Greek yogurt, some ice cream, or some whipped cream to go on top. Aside from a little apple coring at the beginning, this recipe requires pretty much zero baking know-how to get right. Serve them as a mid-afternoon snack or a light dessert after dinner, and you'll have people clamoring for more.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Baked Apples

Dairy Queen Blizzards are practically legendary on the fast-food dessert scene (yes, that's a thing), and for good reason: They're sweet, they're satisfying, and they're filled to the brim with sugar. What more could you want?

Mashed's copycat Dairy Queen pumpkin pie Blizzard follows Dairy Queen's recipe almost to a fault and should help you recreate your favorite autumnal fast-food dessert. It'll only take five minutes or so to make, with absolutely zero prep involved, so you can rustle one up at less than a moment's notice. All you'll need is the right ingredients, a blender, and a heart of gold, and you'll be getting the best Dairy Queen has to offer from the comfort of your kitchen. Winner.

Recipe: Copycat Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard

Pumpkin spice mania has to be one of the longest-surviving trends in the food world. Even today, countless coffee shops around the world sell variations on this particular treat, with the most famous — and arguably the most popular — being found at Starbucks.

Now, although the pumpkin spice latte sits at the forefront of the pumpkin spice trend, there are a few other versions to be found, including Mashed's copycat Starbucks pumpkin cream cold brew. Although the fall recipe itself suggests enjoying it in the mid-summer, there's no reason you can't make yourself a cup in the early autumn when the weather hasn't quite turned.

Our version is cheap and easy to make. You'll have to make both the vanilla syrup and the pumpkin spice syrup yourself if you really want to get as close to the Starbucks version as possible. But the extra effort is worth it; the result really will be just like the real thing. This isn't too complicated a process, either; as long as you know what you're doing, you shouldn't run into any trouble.

Then again, if the cold winds of autumn do start to creep in, you could always take the syrups we use in this recipe and use them to make an actual latte. What you'll end up with, of course, is a bona fide pumpkin spice latte — the perfect treat for the season.

Recipe: Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew

Starbucks has a stellar reputation when it comes to fall treats, and the chain's pumpkin bread is one of its best offerings. Just in case it's not convenient to get yourself over to your nearest branch, though, we've got the perfect copycat recipe.

This is a gorgeously spongy, perfectly autumnal slice of pumpkin bliss, topped with seeds (if you prefer) and easy to make in just over an hour. It'll take a good few ingredients to get just right. And some, such as pumpkin spice or pepita seeds, might take a little effort to get ahold of. It'll be more than worth it, though. The finished product is light and moist and should have a golden-brown crust that works perfectly with those seeds.

All in all, it's a fantastic addition to your roster of fall baked treats. And, of course, it pairs well with that Starbucks copycat cold brew. What could be better?

Recipe: Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Bread

If you're lucky enough to own an Instant Pot, you're well aware just how easy it can make life in the kitchen — and how recipes that might once have been tricky and complex can suddenly become a total breeze to pull off.

So let's say you're living the dream: You've got yourself an Instant Pot, it's the middle of fall, and you're really jonesing for a pumpkin pie. Well, a decent Instant Pot pumpkin pie recipe would make things pretty much perfect right about now, wouldn't it? This pumpkin pie isn't just quick and easy to make — it also benefits from a wonderful texture and a gorgeously autumnal, sweet, dark, slightly spiced taste.

Even better, we've also included a little hack to make sure your Instant Pot pumpkin pie comes glazed with the same caramelized top that you'll find on oven-baked pie but doesn't usually coalesce during an Instant Pot cook. It basically involves a sprinkle of sugar and a quick trip to the broiler ... but you didn't hear that from us.

Recipe: Instant Pot Pumpkin Pie

We already know that pumpkin cake pretty much rules. But how could you possibly make it even better? By adding a heap of marshmallow on top. There is something autumnal about the humble marshmallow, too — what's better on a crisp fall evening than toasting marshmallows over an open fire? 

Mashed's three-ingredient marshmallow pumpkin cake combines these two fall staples into one gorgeous oven-baked slice of pure joy. All you need is a little cake mix, some pumpkin pie mix, and a good cup of marshmallow cream, and you'll be ready to go in just over 30 minutes. It's cheap, it's quick, and it's easy to make — but it doesn't suffer one jot for it. The final result will be just airy and fluffy enough, with a good kick of pumpkin flavor that's only accentuated by the marshmallow frosting.

Recipe: 3-ingredient Marshmallow Pumpkin Cake

While Panera has standby soups that appear on the menu year-round, the chain is also known for seasonal specialties, such as the highly-anticipated autumn squash soup. The not-so-secret recipe for this soup combines both pumpkin and butternut squash and mixes in some cream cheese for richness. Mashed's copycat recipe is leaner and lighter, as we omit the cheese and stick with cream alone. We also omit the pumpkin as well as the ginger they use for flavoring, so our soup is not an exact dupe for Panera's. But it's an easy, tasty, curry-spiced squash soup that's perfect for fall.

Recipe: Copycat Panera Bread Autumn Squash Soup

One lesser-known fall fruit is the oh-so-underrated persimmon. If perchance picked yourself a peck of persimmons (or just found them in the store) and aren't quite sure what to do with them, let this easy jam serve as an introduction to your new favorite fruit. All you need to do is peel and purée your persimmons, then simmer them with sugar and lemon juice. As to what to do with the jam, try it on porridge, pancakes, and pound cake, or maybe even in a peanut butter-persimmon sandwich (the soon-to-be famous PBP).

Recipe: Easy Persimmon Jam

Just snagged a bag of Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocchi? Here's how recipe developer Sher Castellano suggests cooking it in autumn: with sweet potato, kale, and a whole lot of parmesan cheese. While this 15-minute gnocchi is an impressive and quick meal to whip up in the months of fall, you can easily move around the ingredients as seasons change. In the summer, for example, Castellano recommends swapping the kale and sweet potato with tomato and basil. It's an easy recipe to have on hand at any time of the year.

While kale and sweet potatoes are readily available in the supermarket all throughout the year, there's no denying that the colors in combination, especially when cooked, have a certain autumn harvest (or perhaps '70s kitchen) vibe about them. Therefore, for purposes of this dish, we're considering them to be fall vegetables, and the woodsy, earthy sage used to flavor the recipe also plays up on this theme. 

Recipe: 15-Minute Fall Gnocchi

Autumn brings a plethora of pumpkin-flavored desserts and drinks — or ones flavored with pumpkin pie spice, at any rate. Pumpkin itself is a type of squash, however, and it's equally (if not better) suited to savory dishes. Here, we mix canned pumpkin with parmesan cheese and use it to fill wonton wrappers. These pumpkin-parmesan wontons — er, ravioli — are then boiled and topped with a tasty sage-infused butter, plus some additional parmesan.

Recipe: Homemade Pumpkin Ravioli

While the pumpkin ravioli above are finished off with a mixture of melted butter and ground sage, sage butter deserves a separate recipe, as it suits a wide range of dishes. The sage used here is the fresh kind, and the leaves are simmered, whole, in melted butter until it turns brown and takes on an earthy, nutty flavor. While this butter sauce pairs beautifully with pasta of all types, it also works well with potatoes and it would be great for sautéing chicken breasts or frying eggs.

Recipe: Easy Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Once the weather cools down, hot and hearty meals are back in style and the scent of chili simmering in Crock-Pots fills the air. Whether you already have a go-to chili recipe or tend to make things up on the fly, it's always fun to try something new. And this white chili makes a nice change from the standard bowl of red. Both the meat (ground chicken) and the beans (cannellini) are white(ish), but the chili gets some color from red onions and green peppers and an unexpected bite from fresh ginger.

One alteration you may want to make to this recipe is to substitute sour cream for the crème fraiche called for here. Although these two ingredients are slightly different, when it comes to topping your chili it makes little difference which one you use. Go with the cheaper, more readily available choice.

Recipe: White Chicken Chili

Soups, as well as chilis, are on fall's greatest hits list, particularly ones made with seasonal vegetables such as squash. This soup, as the title discloses, calls for ingredients you can count on the fingers of just one hand: butternut squash, onions, garlic, oil, and broth. (You may also want some salt and pepper.) Should you be starting with a whole squash, you will have to put some time peeling, seeding, and chopping it, but butternut squash is also available bagged and ready to cook if you want to save yourself some work.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Butternut Squash Soup

Even in the fall, no-one wants to live off soups and chili alone, nor are summer's "rabbit food" salads too welcome on the table once sweater weather arrives. Substantial, filling fare is what's wanted, and this rich, tender pork loin does not disappoint. While the pork itself is pretty unadorned here, as it's sprinkled with nothing more than salt, it's roasted atop a bed of apples and onions that have been sautéed with honey, balsamic vinegar, and cinnamon.

Recipe: Balsamic Pork Loin

Maple-harvesting season takes place in late winter or early spring once the sap starts to run. But for some reason, maple is a flavor we typically associate with fall. Perhaps because when we think maple, we think of the leaves (and of the flag, if we're Canadian), and leaves = fall. Who knows — and frankly, who cares? Maple flavoring is good year-round, but these roast carrots with a maple glaze work especially well with many of fall's heartier entrees.

Recipe: Easy Maple Roasted Carrots

Stew is a classic cold-weather dish, but this isn't your typical stew. Here, we pair ground lamb, a meat that's not often used in stews, with eggplant, an equally under-rated, under-utilized vegetable. This combination was inspired by the Greek dish moussaka, so in addition to the lamb and the eggplant it also features a cinnamon-spiked tomato sauce and a feta cheese topping. All of these ingredients work together to give this stew a distinctively Mediterranean flavor.

Recipe: 30-Minute Lamb Stew

While it is the season of squashes, the autumnal vegetable can seem a tad too time-consuming to cook with sometimes, especially if you're hoping to venture beyond the usual soup. If you've got a little over half an hour to spare, however, this squash pomegranate salad is colorful, nutritious, full of flavor, incredibly easy to whip up, and filling enough to go from a side dish to a light lunch.

You'll love how well the baked butternut squash used here goes with the kale/spinach greens combo. The best part, however, is the sprinkling of pomegranate seeds, which add a pop of sweet/tangy flavor.

Recipe: Squash Pomegranate Salad

If you need a starter course for a fall-themed meal, may we suggest a cheese ball flavored with Thanksgiving's unofficial fruit? The dried cranberries used here are combined with the juice and zest from a fresh orange, something that helps offset their tart flavor with a little bit of sweetness. As is typical of a cheese ball, the bulk of it is made up of cream cheese, and it's also rolled in a coating of chopped pecans to provide both structure and crunch.

Recipe: Cranberry Orange Cheese Ball

While the Instant Pot is not your best choice for cooking some types of pasta, as they can easily turn to mush, sturdy penne should be able to hold up to the pressure, so that's the kind used here. This pumpkin pasta is a healthy vegan recipe where the canned vegetable is combined with such ingredients as coconut milk, miso paste, and nutritional yeast to make a filling, plant-based one-pot meal that's fairly quick to cook.

Recipe: Instant Pot Pumpkin Pasta

Winter squash isn't a single variety, but instead a category that encompasses different types of squash such as acorn, hubbard, spaghetti, butternut, and even pumpkin. While this recipe calls for acorn squash (as well as canned pumpkin), you can absolutely swap it out or supplement it with any of the other thick-skinned squashes. Despite the fact that we're calling this soup creamy, the word describes the texture of the puréed squash and does not refer to the dairy product of the same name. As a matter of fact, this soup contains no animal products whatsoever as long as you don't top it with sour cream, so it's something that vegans can enjoy.

Recipe: Creamy Winter Squash Soup

There isn't a tremendous amount of difference between apple juice and apple cider — sweet cider, that it, not the boozy, fizzy hard stuff that comes in six-packs — as long as you're drinking it cold. Once you pour apple juice into a pot, heat it up, and toss in some spice, though, it's always called cider no matter what it started out as. In this recipe, though, we're using neither juice nor cider, but rather starting with fresh apples and cooking them in an Instant Pot along with an orange and some cinnamon. It's kind of like making extra-liquidy apple sauce, only here, the apple stuff is tossed out and the liquid that remains becomes the cider. Or, you know, you could sweeten the apple mash to taste and have both sauce and cider, as well as earning bonus points for thriftiness.

Recipe: Instant Pot Spiced Apple Cider

Mashed potatoes are a favorite comfort food once the weather cools down, as they go so well with hearty, heavy meals. For an especially autumnal mash, however, we prefer to use sweet potatoes with their pumpkin-colored hue. While sweet potatoes, as their name indicates, do have some natural sweetness, this recipe adds maple syrup to the mix for an extra hit of fall flavor. The mashed potatoes also include both butter and cream to give them extra richness.

Considering the fact that it only takes a handful of ingredients and a little over 30 minutes to make these mashed sweet potatoes, it's a convenient side dish to make for Thanksgiving or parties when you've got more time-consuming mains vying for attention.

Recipe: Creamy Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Winter squashes, such as the butternut, can be on the mild side, flavor-wise. But this means they work well as the base for flavor-packed dishes, such as this Asian-inspired curry. In addition to the squash, this coconut milk-based vegetable curry includes peas, potatoes, spinach, and onions and is spiced with curry paste, coriander, garlic, ginger, paprika, and turmeric. While the title and instructions may imply that an Instant Pot is necessary, you can actually use these same ingredients to cook the dish on the stove top, as well.

Recipe: Instant Pot Butternut Squash Curry

Let's admit it: It's not fall until the PSL is back on Starbucks' menu. And when it comes to the reigning supreme of all fall beverages, Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte comes when it pleases and stays for a fleetingly short period of time. But fret not, this copycat version of the drink ensures an endless supply of Starbucks-style pumpkin spice latte all year round for you to enjoy whenever you're feeling the spirit of autumn. With six ingredients and six minutes, the PSL season is here when you want it to be.

Recipe: Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

Pumpkins may get all the press, but cranberries, too, are another true fall fruit — so much so, in fact, that it can be nearly impossible to buy a bag of them in summertime. The great thing about cranberries, though, is they freeze perfectly with no prep work required, so you should always buy multiple bags when they go on sale before Thanksgiving. That way, you can enjoy these cranberry brie bites, which are a sweet/savory spin on bruschetta, all through the year. 

Recipe: Sparkling Cranberry Brie Bites

The Instant Pot isn't the only pot in which you can prepare warm, spiced apple cider. The slow cooker also makes for a perfect way to infuse the juice with spices. And according to recipe developer Hayley MacLean, her slow cooker apple cider tastes "just like autumn in a mug." 

This recipe calls for sweetening apple juice with brown sugar and flavoring it with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, star anise, and a sliced orange, although you can feel free to adjust the spices to suit your preferences. Not only will the apple-cinnamon-star anise-clove-allspice-orange combo slowly brewing away in the slow cooker have your house smelling like fall, but it's also just the drink to curl up to during the more chillier evenings of the season. 

Once the cider is flavored to your taste, the slow cooker can also keep it warm for as long as you wish, making it a perfect drink for fall get-togethers. One batch yields eight servings, and the apple cider can keep for two weeks in the refrigerator before the sugar starts to ferment the drink into an alcohol-like cider.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Apple Cider

Flavorful fall produce lends itself well to meatless cooking, and this squash soup recipe is 100% vegan — none of its creaminess comes from dairy products. The soup starts off with butternut squash roasted with onions and garlic, then the vegetables are puréed and cooked in coconut milk with Asian-inspired seasonings including ginger, turmeric, red pepper, miso paste, and lime juice. Top this soup off with chopped cilantro, or maybe sprinkle on some pepitas to add a little crunch.

Recipe: Creamy Yellow Squash Soup

If you've been faithfully reading every recipe (you have, haven't you?), then you'll recall that we've already made a pitch for adding cooked squash to salads. Squash makes your salad more filling and nutritious, while its mild, slightly sweet flavor plays nicely with the sharp taste of greens such as the kale used here. In addition to the butternut squash, this dish also features fall favorites such as apples, pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries tossed in a tangy vinegar dressing, making it a veritable cornucopia in a salad bowl.

Recipe: Hearty Fall Salad With Roasted Butternut Squash

Once upon a time, most pumpkin-based dishes were sweet ones: pumpkin pie, pumpkin donuts, even pumpkin coffee drinks. At some point, however, the barrier was breached and pumpkin started spilling over into all manner of savory dishes as well. While we're not entirely sold on pumpkin-flavored canned meats or snack chips, we must say that pumpkin products such as Trader Joe's curry sauce are a welcome addition to the store shelves each fall. Our recipe isn't an exact replica of the Trader Joe's version, but was inspired by it. It's pretty simple to make, too; all you need to do is to sauté onion, garlic, and ginger and then simmer these aromatics with pumpkin purée, coconut milk, and curry paste.

Recipe: Pumpkin Curry Sauce

Unlike the other pumpkin recipes on this list, this pumpkin cheese ball is not made with, nor does it taste like, pumpkin. There's no pumpkin pie spice involved, either. Instead, this is a pretty standard cheese ball (cream cheese, cheddar, and chives) formed into a pumpkin shape, then rolled in a coating of finely-grated orange cheese and topped off with a very realistic-looking stem from a bell pepper. Pumpkiny-tasting it may not be, but it's so darn cute we just had to share.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cheese Ball

In the summertime, we often wake up early even on weekends as we rush off to fairs, festivals, beach trips, and the like. Once fall arrives, though, life slows down a bit and we have the time and the appetite for a good hearty breakfast instead of merely grabbing sustenance on the run. This baked oatmeal dish triples up on fall flavors with cinnamon, maple syrup, and fresh (or frozen) cranberries and makes for a healthy, yet tasty, start to a leisurely autumn day.

Recipe: Cranberry Baked Oatmeal

Transitioning from hot summer days to cold autumn evenings calls for a bowl or two of soup to warm up to every now and then. Luckily, there are plenty of root vegetables in season this time of the year that make excellent soups. With roasted butternut squash, parsnips, carrots, and sweet potatoes, a bowl of this root vegetable soup more than makes up for your daily serving of vegetables as well.If you have picky eaters in the house, the soup is a great way to sneak tons of veggies into one meal — even if you serve a grilled cheese sandwich along with it to sweeten the deal.

Recipe: Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

Tom Colicchio, whom you probably know from his tenure as a judge on Food Network's "Top Chef," is a fan of using seasonal produce during the appropriate time of year. While his original braised short ribs recipe isn't particularly autumnal, the "twist" we're applying here incorporates both butternut squash and turnips. This recipe is fairly time-consuming, but it's not terribly labor-intensive or complex, nor does it involve any fancy plating or other chef-y frills and furbelows. So it's something even us non-cordon bleu cooks need not fear to attempt.

Recipe: Tom Colicchio's Braised Short Ribs With A Twist

You've covered all the bases: Snacks, desserts, elaborate dinners, salads, and coffees have all been given an appropriately autumnal makeover. So now that it's time to wind down to a much-needed cocktail over the weekend, why resort to the plain ol' martini when you can give that an autumnal spin, too?

Cocktail purists might object to the term "martini" being used here. But our pumpkin cocktail is no different from many other flavored martinis in that, while it is an alcoholic mixed drink that can be poured into a martini glass, it has little else in common with the original drink of that name. Instead, it's a sweet but boozy cocktail combining vanilla vodka, Frangelico, cream, and pumpkin pie spice (no actual pumpkins are harmed in its creation).

While this pumpkin spice martini requires you to plan ahead and shop for a few specific ingredients, it comes together in no more than 10 minutes after that. Complete with a pumpkin pie spiced graham cracker rim, whipped cream, and cinnamon bark for garnish, this boozy cocktail might just give the PSL a run for its money.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Martini

Fall's favorite beverage, it seems, is not an "adult" one, at least not in the sense of the word that means boozy. Instead, once the temperature drops below the 70s, grown-ups and kids alike all crave a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Our version here is an extra-rich one, made with milk and melted chocolate chips, while it gets a kick from a Mexican-inspired spice combo of nutmeg, cinnamon and chili powder. Whipped cream and/or marshmallows are optional (but highly recommended, because they always make hot chocolate more fun).

Ready to gulp in a mere four minutes, this spiced hot chocolate can be spiked with a splash of rum, bourbon, or brandy for the grown-ups in the room.

Recipe: Spiced Hot Chocolate

It's not officially fall until Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook all start breaking out with photos of pumpkin soup being served in cute little pumpkin-shaped mini tureens (or, better yet, hollowed-out tiny pumpkins). Should you have tureens to fill, you may enjoy this healthy (and vegan) pumpkin soup made with coconut milk, white beans, and Asian-inspired flavorings including ginger, turmeric, curry, and miso. Of course, you must also top the soup with toasted pumpkin seeds, then be sure to take (and post) plenty of pics before you dig in.

Recipe: Creamy Pumpkin Soup

On cold mornings, it's hard to drag yourself out of bed, so a nice long lie-in is the highlight of many a fall and winter weekend. Once you do decide to crawl out from under the covers, though, we can't think of a nicer way to start the day than with a warming, filling breakfast hash that combines sausage with fried apples and roasted butternut squash, topped with a few fried eggs and a generous sprinkling of cheese. The best part? It only takes five minutes of prep to get the hash going.

Recipe: Autumn Hash

Chilly fall weekends, especially the damp, drizzly kind, were made for staying home and baking. A perfect way to celebrate the season while still staying safely indoors would be by whipping up a batch of these pumpkin biscuits. This recipe calls for brown sugar and the familiar trio of pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger) in the dough, along with some pumpkin purée.

A wonderful addition to brunch and afternoon tea platters, the biscuits can also be used to make breakfast sandwiches on cozy autumn mornings.

Recipe: Pumpkin Biscuits

As long as you're in a fall baking mood, you might also want to try making crescent rolls stuffed with a brown sugar/cinnamon/sweet potato/marshmallow/pecan filling. Don't worry about the rolls themselves, as Pillsbury does most of the work. Canned dough forms the base, so all you need to do is unroll, separate, stuff with sweet potato, and roll back up again. While you could serve these sweet potato crescents as a side dish, they're quite sweet so they may be even better as a breakfast or coffee treat.

Recipe: Best Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

If you're planning a fall-themed breakfast or brunch, you'll want a sweet treat to finish off the meal. And this cranberry-orange coffee cake would be a perfect fit. It's kind of a fancied-up version of cranberry-orange bread, as it makes use of the same sweet/tart classic fruit combo. But rather than being made with fresh cranberries, it uses canned cranberry sauce. In fact, if you overbought on the stuff for Thanksgiving, this coffee cake recipe is a great way to use the surplus.

Recipe: Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake

This squash soup is a super-simple one, as it contains just seven ingredients. It starts off with the butternut squash itself, which is sautéed with oil and garlic. The sautéed squash is then simmered with cream and chicken broth and seasoned with salt and paprika. Once the cooking is complete, all of these ingredients are then blended into a soup that's smooth, thick, and creamy and is guaranteed to warm you up on a chilly day.

Recipe: Savory Butternut Squash Soup

In recent years, hummus has strayed out of its lane, veering off into dessert flavors that don't always work so well with a base of mashed chickpeas. The hummus in this recipe, however, is not pumpkin pie-flavored. Instead, the roast pumpkin here is starring in a savory role, abetted by cumin, garlic, and lemon as well as tahini and chickpeas. You can top it with pepitas to double down on the pumpkin or use a sprinkling of seeds as pictured here, then scoop it up with pita wedges, crackers, or crudites.

Recipe: Easy Roasted Pumpkin Hummus

If autumn had an official snack, what should it be? If you answered pumpkin spice Pringles or candy corn, we'll have to agree to disagree (and also not to cater each other's Halloween parties). Instead, we'd like to nominate these roasted pumpkin seeds, which are seasoned with fall's favorite spice, cinnamon. Not only do these cinnamon seeds taste great, but this recipe is also a wonderful way to make use of a jack o'lantern byproduct that might otherwise get tossed in the trash. Not only will you have a healthy snack to nibble on throughout the day, but you can also use the pumpkin seeds in other recipes, including salads.

Recipe: Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds, if they are eaten at all, are usually oven-roasted and seasoned, as in the above recipe, or else they're removed from the shells and added to soups, salads, granola bars, trail mix, and anywhere else seeds tend to make an appearance. They can, however, also be used to make an alternative to nut butter, as we're doing in this recipe. While pumpkin seed butter would be quite an ordeal were you to shell the pumpkin seeds yourself, if you start with the pre-shelled kind all you'll need to do is add a little bit of oil and salt and then grind them up in the blender in a matter of mere minutes (well, actually seconds, as you don't want to over-grind). 

Recipe: Homemade Pumpkin Seed Butter

>What's the difference between mulled cider and warm, spiced cider? Hmm, let us mull it over for a bit. Okay, we've come up with the answer: nothing. Mulled cider, as with mulled wine, just means that it's been heated up along with some seasonings, so the other Instant Pot/slow cooker cider recipes on this list also produce a mulled beverage. This one's pretty simple, as it just uses cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, and a sliced orange, although you could swap out the ground cloves for whole ones and whole cinnamon for the ground stuff or mix and match your cider spices as you wish.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Mulled Cider

Plain baked carrots can be a pretty ho-hum vegetable, but a coating of maple syrup helps to play up their natural sweetness quite nicely. Wrapping them in bacon, however, makes them, well, bacony, which is never a bad thing. (They're not quite "marrots," but they've at least got omnivore appeal.) Oh, and if you're wondering where to find a "rasher of streaky bacon" as per the ingredients list, don't worry, there's no need to hunt up a British specialty store. A strip of American-style bacon will work just fine.

Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Maple-Glazed Carrots

While the type of bruschetta we're most familiar with is the kind made with tomatoes and cheese, the dish doesn't have to follow that formula. The term itself actually refers to simple sliced grilled bread, so bruschetta can be flavored with nothing more elaborate than a dressing of oil and a seasoning such as garlic. Here we're going with a sweet/savory combo of honey-drizzled brie cheese topped with sliced apples. We must caution you, however, that bruschetta made from this recipe doesn't keep well, so you may wish to cut down on the ingredients, so you only make as many as you can eat in one sitting.

Recipe: Easy Apple Bruschetta

Quit waffling over what to make for breakfast and whip out your trusty waffle maker. While all waffles are good, homemade ones are better than frozen, and the best waffles of all are made with pumpkin in the batter as well as pumpkin pie spice. For even more fall flavor, you can top them with maple syrup or cinnamon sugar. Make up a big batch of these waffles on a weekend, then freeze the leftovers so you can reheat them in the toaster oven for a quick weekday breakfast.

Recipe: Easy Pumpkin Waffles

If you had to list all the things that you love about autumn, waking up to a house smelling like sweet cinnamon is probably high up there on the list. Cinnamon-spiked fluffy pancakes, soft apples, a buttery-sugary sauce, and a house smelling like fall — what's not to love about it? Although these apple cinnamon pancakes could double as a dessert, they're excellent when eaten as a breakfast dish befitting the season.

Recipe: Homemade Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

In summer, iced tea's what's on the menu. But once the calendar flips over to September, it's time to start drinking your tea warm. If plain tea is too plain for you, though, why not try DIY chai? While pre-mixed chai is available in packet form and teabags, for a true hands-on experience, try making a homemade chai mix.

A spicy chai brings three things everyone likes in the months of fall: something warm, something spicy, and something a little sweet. Once you have your cardamom, cloves, peppercorns, ginger, and cinnamon going, honey, vanilla, and a swirl of whipped cream will bring the sweetness. Sip on it with a plate of warm scones or muffins on chilly afternoons if you like, but the spicy chai is decadent enough to qualify as an after-dinner liquid dessert as well.

Recipe: Warm And Spicy Chai

We can't let this fall recipe round-up go without a few more shout-outs (shouts out?) to the fall holidays. While themed charcuterie boards may not be quite as on-trend as they were a few years ago, spooky-cute food is always a hit at Halloween parties. Plus, it's nice to have something savory on the table to counteract all the sugar from the cookies, cupcakes, and candy. This recipe is a three-fer — it tells you how to turn mandarin oranges into tiny pumpkins, make a mummy from a block of goat cheese, and fashion a bloody coffin out of jelly and brie.

Recipe: Halloween Charcuterie Board

Thanksgiving may be all about the turkey, but the side dishes that accompany the bird are also an essential part of the meal. For the most part, these tend to be stodgy and traditional. But if you dare experiment just a tiny bit, this rice pilaf makes a lighter, healthier alternative to the typical potatoes. This recipe is made with wild rice, fresh herbs, and vegetables, with dried cranberries adding some festive color and familiar Thanksgiving flavor.

Recipe: Thanksgiving Rice Pilaf

It's funny that there are a zillion and six recipes for how to use up your Thanksgiving leftovers when many people enjoy them exactly as they are. If you're somehow in the mood for cooking a few days after the holiday feast, though, you may find that rolling turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce in egg roll wrappers makes for a fun, easy way to re-purpose the remains of your holiday feast.

And if you have some gravy left over, you can use that, too. Simply serve it alongside the egg rolls for dipping.

Recipe: Thanksgiving Leftover Egg Rolls

What's better than pumpkin cookies? Why, chewy pumpkin cookies, of course. While these cookies are pretty forgiving to even the most amateur bakers, recipe developer Jessica Morone has a few tricks for you to get them just right. There's maple syrup for a deeper flavor, an hour of chill time in the refrigerator, a coating of pumpkin pie spice and sugar for that autumnal bliss, and flattening the dough balls for a wonderfully soft and chewy texture.

Recipe: Chewy Pumpkin Cookies

Now that you have your home-brewed slow cooker apple cider, why not use it to make tender pork chops? (Alternatively, there's also the option of using store-bought apple cider to make the pork chops.) As long as you've skimmed through the ingredient list and the cooking process before starting, this apple cider pork chop recipe is entirely beginner-friendly. Best served with mashed sweet potatoes or stewed apples in fall, the pork chops are also fit to be eaten all year round when served with kale and bacon.

Recipe: Apple Cider Pork Chops

If you've spotted a bag of fresh sweet potatoes at your local market and can't figure out how to make use of them, these oven-roasted sweet potatoes are extremely versatile. With six items on the ingredient list, including a pinch of cinnamon to give them an autumnal spin, these roasted sweet potatoes make for an excellent side dish on the dinner table. But that's not all — you can pop also them into a buddha bowl, toss them with black beans in a salad, accompany them with sandwiches, or even eat them alongside egg or tofu-based breakfast spreads.

Recipe: Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes

So, you've used your bottle of pumpkin spice to make pumpkin spice lattes, milkshakes, cookies, and the glorious pie — but what's next? Recipe developer and pâtissier Eric Ngo has just the pumpkin spice-filled treat for you to try: pumpkin spice macarons. With chewy pumpkin spice-flavored white chocolate ganache sandwiched between two egg white-based crunchy shells, the macarons perfectly balance flavor and intricacy with a whole lot of fall festivity.

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Macarons

If your favorite bit about the harvest season is going apple picking and baking apple pies with your bounty of juicy, freshly plucked apples, these mini versions of the pie will be winners. The bite-sized portion means that everyone has an entire mini pie for themselves. Even better, this recipe can be adapted to fit several diets by using gluten-free flour for the crust and dairy-free whipped cream for the topping.

Recipe: Mini Apple Pies

With the changing of leaves and the dip in temperatures, fall is also the season of all things spooky. And what better way to make the most of Halloween than to use the fresh produce of autumn to whip up something devilishly sweet? Poke a stick into your apples, dip them in a bowl of melted caramel candies, and coat your caramel apples in Halloween-themed sweet sprinkles. Dig into them with a hot cup of cocoa or warm apple cider, and just like that, saying goodbye to summer won't seem all that bad anymore.

Recipe: Halloween Caramel Apples

A combination of three things that scream "Thanksgiving" — turkey, cranberries, and pecasn — in one tasty salad, this salad is savory and tangy but also a tad sweet all at once. While this is a salad, and one that will put all dull-looking deli versions to shame, it doesn't have to be eaten as a lackluster side dish alongside the main star on the table. Instead, stuff it between a croissant, wrap it in a tortilla, or slather it in a piece of toast to give your usual lunch a seasonal makeover.

Recipe: Turkey Salad With Cranberries And Pecans

This recipe leaves out all the hard parts of making a cannoli at home, aka the crisp pastry shells, to store-bought alternatives so that you get to roll up your sleeve and do what you like best: flavor the cannoli filling with all-things-pumpkin. In goes the pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie spice, as well as mascarpone and ricotta cheese for the filling. Once you've piped the filling into your cannoli shells, you can decorate your Italian treats with chocolate chips, a dusting of powdered sugar, or even some more pumpkin pie spice on top — you can never have enough of that.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cannoli

While the months of fall are the months of bonfires, pumpkin patches, and gooey s'mores, it's also the season of apples. Now, apples do have a far longer shelf life than most fruits. But even then, there's only so long they'll stay fresh, and there are only so many apple pies you can eat. The next best thing to do is to stew your apples with some spices in a Crock-Pot, turn the fruit into butter, and slather a huge dollop onto your morning toast for breakfast with a side of festive cheer.

Recipe: Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Imagine all the things that you could add to your morning coffee in the fall: a pinch of cinnamon, a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice, a swirl of maple or salted caramel syrup — the possibilities are endless. So it's only fair that your favorite coffee accompaniments get a fitting makeover, too. With the help of pumpkin purée and the usual selection of autumnal spices, this pumpkin-flavored biscotti tastes great with any hot drink but works even better when dunked into an equally delicious pumpkin-flavored coffee.

Recipe: Pumpkin Biscotti

In a world of pumpkin pies, sweet potato pies often come second. Not only is the pie a solid way to use up any sweet potatoes leftover from your holiday cooking, but the root vegetable also has an inherent natural sweetness, which makes it a fantastic vegetable to turn into a sweet pie. This recipe makes it easy for you to whip up a sweet potato pie in no time using a pre-made pie crust. All you need is 10 minutes of prep to throw together the pie filling.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Pie

While some recipes call for modern twists to give age-old favorites a much-needed spin, recipe developer Jessica Morone's apple crisp is as traditional and old-school as it gets. Once you've mastered the seasoning and the crumb topping, you can swap the apples for any fresh fruit, depending on the season — think peaches and pears or even ripe berries in the summer. All you'll have to do is tweak the cooking time depending on the fruit.

Recipe: Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp

Pot pie usually calls for chicken. But when fall comes around, it's time for another white meat to reign supreme: turkey. Made using turkey, vegetables, and fresh herbs such as sage and rosemary, this turkey pot pie comes together in less than an hour. And considering most of the cooking time goes into the pie baking in the oven, it's a wonderful meal for parties and gatherings when you'd rather spend your time with the guests than tucked away in the kitchen.

Recipe: Turkey Pot Pie

Why have just one fall flavor in your dessert when you can have two? Recipe developer Molly Allen's cupcakes take less than 30 minutes to bake and feature both pumpkin and pecans to create a fall dessert that is soft and moist but also has some crunch from chopped nuts. Finished with a cream cheese frosting and some more chopped pecans on top, Allen's cupcakes are just as pretty to look at as they are to eat.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pecan Cupcakes

There are several things you can do with a rich pumpkin caramel sauce: swirl it on top of waffles, pancakes, and fruits in the morning, pour it onto a scoop of ice cream for dessert, or even use it to spruce up your everyday coffee. Now that your dreams are filled with pumpkin caramel sauce, you'll be happy to know that it requires minimal effort to make at home. All you need are six ingredients and eight minutes for one cup of pumpkin caramel sauce to be ready.

Recipe: Pumpkin Caramel Sauce

Nothing screams fall and Halloween more than candy corn — it does take after the bright yellow and orange colors of autumn, after all. Combining the colors of candy corn with moist little cupcakes, these candy corn cupcakes are decked with a rich buttercream frosting and real candy corn for garnish. Because the recipe leaves the most arduous part of baking to a boxed white cake mix, you can focus your skills on decorating the cupcakes and watch them steal the show at your next fall festivity.

Recipe: Candy Corn Cupcakes

If you're a tad tired of the usual roast turkey, try brining and smoking it this year. Not only does smoking give the turkey a wonderfully smoky flavor, but brining it first makes it even juicier. While this recipe uses a wet apple and rosemary brine for the turkey, you can easily use a dry brine by leaving out the water instead. Regardless of the brine you choose, you'll also be coating the meat in a dry rub of sage, thyme, paprika, black pepper, and onion powder to give it even more flavor.

Recipe: Brined And Smoked Turkey

Is a marathon of spooky Halloween movies on the cards over the weekends coming up? You're going to need popcorn and considering the changing of seasons, a simple tub of salted popcorn simply won't do. Instead, recipe developer Jessica Morone suggests layering a batch of buttered popcorn on a baking tray and tossing it in a homemade caramel sauce. Rich, sweet, sticky, and crisp, the caramel corn requires no more than 10 minutes of prep and can be made as much as two weeks in advance.

Recipe: Sticky-Sweet Caramel Corn

Have you ever met someone who doesn't like caramel apples and popcorn? Exactly. Combining two classic fall-flavored treats into one tasty snack, recipe developer Jaime Bachtell-Shelbert's caramel apple popcorn has that irresistible sweet and salty flavor that no one can keep their hands off. Made using dried apples and microwaveable popcorn — all covered in caramel and autumnal spices — this versatile snack will fit into any fall situation, parties, movie nights, football matches, midnight hunger pangs, you name it.

Recipe: Caramel Apple Popcorn

The one great thing about the abundance of apples around fall is that you can turn them into desserts but also use them to add a sweet and fruity touch to breakfast. Recipe developer Miriam Hahn says that her southern fried apples taste pretty darn good as a dessert by themselves with some whipped cream or ice cream but are an equally good addition on top of a bowl of oatmeal. (There's also the option of using the apples as the filling for a hot pie, of course.)

Recipe: Southern Fried Apples

Is it a carrot cake? Is it a cinnamon roll? Is it carrot cake in the form of a cinnamon roll? These carrot cake cinnamon rolls take the best bits about carrot cake and cinnamon rolls to turn them into one smashing dessert. A filling made from carrots, nutmeg, cinnamon, and chopped pecans is slathered onto a dough and shaped into rolls. Complete with a cream cheese frosting, the only thing better than eating these carrot cake cinnamon rolls will be having your home smell like warm spices while you bake them.

Recipe: Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls

There's nothing extraordinary about an apple pie. But have you ever considered drinking it in the form of a smoothie? Better yet, Susan Olayinka's drinkable apple pie recipe happens to be healthy, too. It's got all the potassium, fiber, and vitamins from the apples, and the apple pie smoothie also packs in manganese, iron, phosphorus, and zinc from the porridge oats, the anti-inflammatory properties of cinnamon, and the protein from Greek yogurt.

Recipe: Apple Pie Smoothie

If you're setting up a bonfire on a chilly fall evening, there have to be s'mores on the menu — it's pretty much unacceptable to have bonfires without s'mores. But just because s'mores and fires go hand-in-hand, it doesn't mean that you can't have a bit of the gooey chocolate sandwich unless you light up a fire. In this 20-minute recipe, recipe developer Jaime Shelbert whips up a batch of s'mores right in his kitchen using an oven. Not only is there no fire involved, but the oven-baked s'mores promise to be an upgrade of the usual — all thanks to the addition of caramel sauce and sea salt.

Recipe: Oven-Baked S'mores

With only 15 minutes of prep required for this recipe, these bar versions of the usual pumpkin cheesecake are far more convenient to make and even easier to gobble up. The recipe strips away all the fussy bits of making a cheesecake but packs in all the flavor that you'd expect from a classic pumpkin cheesecake. In fact, these bars have two types of cheesecake: a layer of classic cheesecake and then another pumpkin spice-flavored one.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Bored of the usual candy corn that makes the rounds during Halloween each year? Meet the bigger, tastier, and certainly more impressive version of the orange and yellow candy: candy corn fudge. This recipe uses a base of white fudge, which is then colored in the hues of actual candy corn and sliced into triangular pieces. Perfect with a cup of coffee and hot chocolate — or even a cheeky glass of wine or Champagne, if the day calls for it.

Recipe: Candy Corn Fudge

Apples, dessert, and salad — these are three things you'd probably never even imagine together, let alone consider eating. Not only is this dessert salad made with nutrient-packed ingredients, however, but it also doubles as both a salad side dish and a yummy, fall-flavored dessert. Even better, the salad can be prepared up to a week in advance, making it a perfect dish for the holidays. The secret here is the acid from the cream cheese, which prevents the fruit from browning or turning into mush.

Recipe: Apple Dessert Salad

When you think of all of the things you could do with a pumpkin come fall, pasta probably isn't the first thing to come to mind. And a carbonara pasta? Certainly not. But adding a bit of pumpkin purée to your usual bacon and parmesan-filled carbonara is a scrumptious way to give your favorite pasta dish a fall-flavored twist. Plus, you don't have to worry about the carbonara tasting too pumpkin-y — it only uses about a cup of pumpkin purée per eight servings. The flavor is quite mild, and the pumpkin only makes the carbonara sauce creamier.

Recipe: Pumpkin Carbonara

The pecan pie that usually graces dinner tables across the country during Thanksgiving has largely remained unchanged since it was first created in the 19th century. In this recipe, however, recipe developer Kristen Carli gives the age-old pecan pie a much-needed — and dare we say tasty — spin. Folding in some melted chocolate into the usual butter corn syrup, egg, and pecan mix, Carli's chocolate pecan pie has just enough of a twist without straying too far away from the traditional sticky, sweet, and nutty pecan pie that everyone loves.

Recipe: Chocolate Pecan Pie

You can add a touch of fall to all sorts of meals, beginning with the very first meal of the day. Take your everyday overnight oatmeal, for example — spice it up with pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, and freshly ground nutmeg.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats

If there ever were a perfect fall cookie, recipe developer Hayley MacLean's apple spice cookies would be a strong contender. Bursting with the warm flavor of autumnal spices as well as soft pieces of apples and crunchy chopped walnuts for bites of contrasting texture, these apple spice cookies smell and taste like all things autumn. It only takes 30 minutes to bake the cookies, so they'll be ready by the time you've poured yourself a mug of hot apple cider or brewed a pumpkin spice latte to go with your freshly baked treats.

Recipe: Apple Spice Cookies

Whether you're in a rush to scramble up dinner in the middle of the week, looking for a meal that will feed a large party without taking up too much of your time, or are simply in no mood to cook, you need a hassle-free dish that will pretty much cook itself. Worry not — if you've got an Instant Pot, a few handy ingredients, and five minutes to spare, you have everything you need to make a butternut squash risotto. You don't even have to constantly stir your risotto; simply toss everything into the pot, forget all about it for 25 minutes, and let your Instant Pot do all the heavy lifting.

Recipe: Instant Pot Squash Risotto

Pumpkin spice ... ramen? Who would've thought such a thing was possible? If you're feeling a tad daring and are in the mood to try a pumpkin spice item more adventurous than its usual dessert renditions, recipe developer Miriam Hahn's pumpkin spice ramen is a fall dish you didn't know you needed. The combination of sweet and savory spices makes this pumpkin spice ramen mildly sweet but mostly spicy. "Different but delicious" are the words Hahn uses to describe her bold, spicy, and pumpkin spice-flavored ramen.

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Ramen

Baking projects don't always have to be elaborate and time-consuming. These cinnamon sugar cookies require no more than eight ingredients most of which are probably already in your pantry. If you take away the time that it takes to chill the cookie dough, you only need 15 minutes of prep and another 10 for the cookies to bake. In the end, you'll have a batch of soft and chewy cookies bursting with the warm flavor of cinnamon.

Recipe: Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

There's no shame in admitting you simply don't have the baking skills to venture beyond the odd cookie or boxed mix cake, let alone dream of working with a pastry. Luckily, recipe developer Jennine Bryant has a brilliant cheat code for you. Simply grab some apples, cinnamon, and store-bought puff pastry, and get ready for some magic. With three ingredients, 30 minutes, and no more than six steps, you'll have yourself a batch of freshly baked apple cinnamon pastries that will taste deceptively more complex than they were to make.

Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Pastries

This pumpkin bread pudding, complete with a pecan caramel sauce, has all the flavors you'd expect from a fall-themed dish: pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, pecans, caramel, and, wait for it ... bourbon. Considering the elements of the pumpkin bread pudding, the ingredient list may seem long at first but the mise en place is as difficult as the recipe gets. Assemble, chill, bake, and cool your creation; when it's time to dig in, simply serve it with some whipped cream, ice cream, or enjoy it by itself.

Recipe: Pumpkin Bread Pudding With Caramel Sauce

During the season of warm spices, orange squashes, and apples, fruits such as blackberries, pears, and sweet fruit crumbles often take a backseat. This pear and blackberry crumble however, is the perfect fall and winter treat, says recipe developer Catherine Brookes, who describes it as "such a cozy and comforting dessert with that gooey fruit and buttery topping." Even better, her version of the dessert is a healthier one made using considerably less sugar and butter than is the norm in usual fruit crumbles. There's also about a cup of rolled oats in here for good measure.

Recipe: Pear And Blackberry Crumble

Now that we've turned apple pie into a smoothie, why should pumpkin pie be treated any less? Made with nothing other than milk, maple syrup, banana, pumpkin purée, and pumpkin pie spice of course, the healthy smoothie can be served at any time of the day and is sure to be a hit amongst adults and kids alike. The fact that the sweet and creamy smoothie happens to taste like "fall in a glass" is only a bonus.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

There are few things better than seeing Instant Pot in a recipe that's meant for the holiday season. Anything that requires minimal prep, involves dumping all ingredients in one pot, and cooks itself without leaving a whole load of washing up to do after, is a winner. And this Instant Pot butternut squash soup ticks all the right boxes. Ready to go in a little over 15 minutes, this veggie-packed fall soup can be served in a simple bowl as it is or decked up with herbs, crispy onions, or seeds, and served alongside toasted and buttered bread to add a bit of oomph to the otherwise humble dish.

Recipe: Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup